Tuesday, March 04, 2014

Lichen

To me it rhymes with liken, but to Sir David Attenborough it rhymes with kitchen. Either way, these symbiotic fungus/plants can be found on just about every tree around us. I understand that, for the most part, they are not parasitic and don't do any real harm to the trees they inhabit. They also grow on rocks and stone walls and directly on the ground.

The union of fungus and algae.

The weather people tell us that high pressure is building into France right now, a high pressure system that's been absent for over seventy days leaving the way clear for upwards of thirty-five low pressure systems off the Atlantic to move through France in that time. If the forecast holds, we are in for at least a week of dry, sunny days. That will be nice.

8 comments:

  1. Love the pic....
    my Biology teacher used to call them "likens" so that's how I call them, too.
    And they are wonderfully photogenic...
    as are mosses and liverworts.

    Once put it to a show-of-hands vote in a well crowded pub
    ...as one does late in the evening....
    and the result was...
    almost a draw between the two pro-nunki-ashuns...
    with "liken" just edging "litchen" out the door...
    I have no doubt that in another pub...
    or on another evening....
    or even in a parallel universe...
    t'would have gone the other way!

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  2. Ooooh, dry sunny days.... dreaming... :)

    Cool photo.

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  3. Hope nobody was hurt in that lichen explosion. It's a beautiful snap.

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  5. I hope the folks of "La Manif Pour Tous" don't come across this photo. Fungus and algae living together??? This photo will undoubtedly provoke "un jour de colère" throughout France.

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  6. Good luck with the dry, sunny days. I know they're rare in France.

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  7. tim, pub life sure sounds interesting...

    judy, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

    stuart, kla-boom!

    dean, deviants! As my dad used to say, "There's a fungus among us."

    starman, not as rare as all that, but after this wet, wet winter, we're anxious.

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  8. Walt, a "PROPER" English pub...
    sans "kanned muzak", sans "theme", sans "slot machines"...
    just good ale, quiet conversation and, in winter, a nice log or coal fire....
    is a wonderful place to be...
    cheers!!
    Hic.

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